Question: To what extent do you agree with the statement, 'Globalization has created more

problems than it has solved'?

Since the 15th century, humanity has witnessed globalization's destruction of ideological borders, facing
the brunt of overconnectivity. Through the ever-growing process of globalization, humankind brings
communities closer and unintentionally destroys a global conceptual diversity. Globalization has
produced more detriments than benefits in regards to the growth of the ecological footprint, the
proliferation of organ trafficking, and the dilution of less-dominant cultures.

The international spread of emulous trade through globalization has instigated the inevitable increase of
unsustainable trade, severely degrading the environment. "Globalization has fostered rapid production,
trade, and consumption of material goods in unprecedented quantities," weighting "the ecological
footprint of human activities around the world" (Huwart & Verdier 112). Starting with the late 1400s'
Columbian Exchange, globalization's limitless fostering of rapidly unsustainable trade foments further
competition between prominent trading powers. This gave way to the single market phenomenon where,
instead of contesting companies, competition thrives between nations, creating an imbalance in the
economic gain distribution between local and international markets. Without education regarding the
unsustainability of unprecedented trading rates, dominant European states during the Early Modern
Period, from the 1500s to the 1800s, such as the 14th-century maritime rivals, Spain and Portugal, solely
traded with the goal of economic gain in mind, exchanging environmentally-damaging, depletable goods
like coal and oil, and resulting in 85% of global energy usage currently being unsustainable.
Unfortunately, the preponderance of products traded in this insuppressible international process are also
limited and time-consuming to produce, such as agriculture and livestock. With farm products accounting
for over 30% of all merchandise trade globally, Asiatic regions such as Malacca and Calicut required
agricultural proliferation to sustain the lucrative international market, overexploiting farmland. Through
the spread of global competitiveness, globalization has led to the deleterious, uncontrollably rapid trading
of finite natural resources, continuing to question the sustainability of trade and damaging the wellbeing
of the environment.

An increase of international economic competitiveness attributable to globalization has encouraged

societies to look past ethics to satisfy their financial greed. "Economic Globalization has been
accompanied by a depletion of humanism" as "altruism has been replaced by domestic demand for 'fresh
organs'" (Scheper-Hughes). Interconnectivity has incited economic competition between nations, creating
higher financial standards. With approximately 100,000 organs globally transplanted per annum, it is
evident that, for monetary gain, participants in the illicit human organ trade take advantage of
globalization's overconnectivity. As globalization shortens international gaps, individuals from developed
countries where organ trade is illegal, such as the United States where kidney transplants average over
$400,000, visit regions where it is accepted, such as Iran where it averages only $13,000, just for
transplant tourism. In China, prisoners have had their organs forcibly removed to satisfy their booming
transplant tourism business, feeding their ever-monetarily-hungry economy at the expense of their
captives' health. With medical tourism globally valued at $60 million in 2006, global integration has
spurred a unified raising of economic standards, overlooking human ethics by violating their person,
especially regarding the illicit human organ trade. Subsequently, globalization's creation of infeasible
economic standards has undoubtedly resulted in a reduction of humanism.

The overconnectivity and blending of cultures through globalization cause detriment to less-dominant
cultures by inciting diminution in cultural diversity. "Rapid cultural interpenetration caused by
globalization menaces non-dominant cultures, especially their intangible cultural heritage" (D'Orville 36).
Globalization's history is stippled with powerful empires oppressing weaker regions into assimilating to
unfamiliar cultures. The 16th-century Spanish conquests of the Inca, Mayan, and Aztec Mezzo-American
civilizations by conquistadors Pizzaro, Hernán Cortés, and Francisco de Montejo, respectively, resulted in
the cultural disappearance of said ancient civilizations. Presently, targets of Western consumerism in Asia
assimilate to consumer ideals because they seem more appealing, leaving behind their own cultural
identity and, thus, contributing to cultural homogenization. Rather than merely an ideological dispersion,
this overpowering of cultures has resulted in the loss of particular customs and traditions, disabling varied
cultures from learning from each other. Cultural interpenetration, through oppressing others into
assimilation, has inhibited the characterization of regions through distinct, historically cultural aspects,
leading to a deficiency in diversity. Due to the rapidity of cultural interpenetration, globalization has
fostered the dilution of distinguishable cultural diversity.

Globalization has been an impactful component of the Modern Era, affecting economies, cultures, and the
environment. Although globalization brings many benefits, the many impediments it brings to an
ideologically diversified society far outweigh the good. The unsustainability of trade, depletion of
humanism, and realization of a monocultural world all result from the reckless integration of
communities, causing detriment to the world as a whole.

Word Count: 750

Works Cited:

Huwart, J. and L. Verdier (2013), Economic Globalisation: Origins and consequences, OECD Insights,
OECD Publishing, Paris, Apr. 11th, 2013.

D'Orville, Hans, "Globalization and Intangible Cultural Heritage: Opportunities, Threats, and
Challenges," UNESCO, Japan, Aug. 26-27, 2004.

Schepher-Hughes, Nancy, Parts Unknown: Undercover Ethnography in the Organs Trafficking

Underworld, Straus Farrar, University of California, Berkeley, May. 26, 2004.